The NVIDIA H100 GPU, which is about 100 times more powerful than any processor that has flown in space to date, will fly aboard the Starcloud-1 satellite, which is expected to launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket next month.
The company behind the mission, the Redmond, Washington-based Starcloud, will use the mission to test how data processing could work in space, as the first step in an ambitious plan to build large-scale computing infrastructure in orbit.
Moving data crunching to space would reduce the environmental burden that the world's growing computing needs present for communities on Earth, some technologists believe.
Data centers consume huge amounts of electricity and water, putting strain on local supplies. They also generate noise and contribute to climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions. In space, power and cooling would be easier to come by, and any potential noise would bother no one.
"In space, you get almost unlimited, low-cost renewable energy," Philip Johnston, cofounder and CEO of Starcloud, said in a statement. "The only cost on the environment will be on the launch; then there will be 10x carbon-dioxide savings over the life of the data center compared with powering the data center terrestrially on Earth."
To move data centers to space, however, will require launch costs to go down a lot. Starcloud expects that the cost calculation will be just right when SpaceX's Starship megarocket becomes fully operational, which could happen in the early 2030s.
Source: www.space.com
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